By Brad Listi Gini Reticker is an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker. Her latest effort, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, is a stirring examination of the Liberian civil war and the band of extraordinary women who helped to put an end to it. The devil in this story is President Charles Taylor, the despot now on trial for war crimes at The Hague. His dictatorial reign from 1997 to 2003 marked a dismal period in Liberia's history, one that created a nation of displaced peoples, child soldiers, relentless violence, and utterly decimated infrastructure. In the aftermath of Taylor's exile, however, Liberia has enjoyed a stunning rebirth, becoming in 2003 the first African nation to elect a female head of state, electing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the presidency. For most of us, the details of this remarkable story are a distant abstraction at best -- something that Reticker and producer Abigail Disney aim to change. Now playing in select theaters nationwide, Pray the Devil Back to Hell does a admirable job of illustrating how it all happened---how this West African republic managed to resurrect itself through the sheer will of ordinary citizens. It is a deeply inspirational tale that, among other things, shows us a side of war and peace that we don't normally see on film. I recently had a chance to talk with Gini Reticker about her film, its origins, and the powerful message it holds for the rest of the world. What is the film about?

 GINI RETICKER: It's about a group of women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. Out of the wreckage, thousands of Christian and Muslim women throughout the country began to organize and banded together in an effort to bring an end to the fighting. How did you get involved in the project?

 I've been producing and directing documentaries for years, with a particular interest in women's stories. In 2004, I produced the Academy Award-nominated short film Asylum, which told the story of a woman who fled Ghana seeking political asylum. At that point, I began to get requests to direct other stories in Africa -- I filmed in Rwanda, Ghana, and Morocco. And in 2006 Pray's producer, Abby Disney, traveled to Liberia in support of the newly elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. There she heard people casually talking about what the Liberian women had done to stop the brutal civil war. She decided she wanted to make a film to capture the story. Coincidentally, we ran into each other after not seeing each other for years, started talking, and one thing led to another. It's striking to bear witness to the dual insanity at work in the Liberian conflict. Charles Taylor and his army. LURD and their army. Opposing forces engaged in brutal violence against one another. Both seemed equally toxic.
 This is one of the things that confused me the most when I first went to Liberia. At first I figured that if Charles Taylor was the bad guy, then LURD must have been the good guys. Then I realized that there were no good guys in the fight. They were all after power and personal wealth, and willing to terrorize the population to get what they wanted. I suspect that only a small percentage of the American people are aware that any of this has happened. Well, I think with the end of the Cold War, Liberia no longer held the strategic importance it once did to American interests, so there isn't much coverage of events there. And most of the events portrayed in the film happened at the exact same time that the US was invading Iraq. So most of the media was focused on that war. Do you think women are inherently wiser than men? And do you think they're better suited to advocate for peace? I don't think women are inherently wiser than men. I do think, however, that women don't have to prove their masculinity. At the same time, the role of women in war has always been invisible. And, without a doubt, we have been left out of the peace process for far too long -- especially today, as civilians make up the majority of casualties and women are being specifically targeted as a way of terrorizing entire populations. A large part of why we wanted to make this film is that there are stories like this all over the world that don't get told. And this actually feeds into the perpetuation of war being seen as solely a man's world. What women have to offer has been overlooked for too long. There is a strong religious element to the story, and a very encouraging display of unity between Christian and Muslim women. What lessons do these Liberian women have for the rest of the world? I have met many many religious people around the world who feel that that their faiths have been hijacked by malevolent people who twist the meaning of religion to serve their own nefarious goals. Pray the Devil Back to Hell really offers a kind of road map on how to confront them on their own turf. These were women of all walks of life who participated in a demand for peace. Charles Taylor's relatives were part of the demonstration. Mothers, sisters and daughters of LURD leaders were part of the protest. Poor women, rich women, all dressed the same -- in white -- so that they couldn't be differentiated. It became impossible to say that they represented only one faction. And people began to support them: Taylor's men secretly brought them money at night and told them to keep up the protest because if [Taylor's men] tried to stop fighting, Taylor would have them killed. People wanted out of the war and the women became the vehicle. Why were these women successful while other, similar movements have failed?
 The women were very strategic in their thinking. For instance, one of the questions that often comes up at screenings is why the warlords cared so much when the women seized the conference hall and threatened to strip naked as peace talks dragged on and on. Though what happened that day was spontaneous, Leymah Gbowee, the leader of the group, told the press to stick around because something was about to happen. She wanted to make sure that the world was watching as the women threatened to embarrass the warlords. It was brilliant. Imagine if Dick Cheney's grandmother threatened to strip naked in front of the world if he didn't negotiate in good faith! What is Liberia like today?

 Liberia is still rough, but getting better. The war did unbelievable damage. There is almost no running water or electricity in all of Liberia, a whole generation didn't go to school, roads were destroyed. But every time I go back, there are signs of things being rebuilt, new investment coming in, schools being opened. I think that people really want to put the war behind them. What is the central message of your film? Is there one?

 I think the film's message is one of hope that good can overcome evil and that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. The achievements of this relatively small group of Liberian women is pretty astounding. Are there are parallel examples of this sort of thing taking place in other parts of the world. In the middle of Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, women are using their mosques to press for peace; in Sudan, hundreds of women have embarked on a campaign to get the warlords to stop the war in Darfur; in Kenya, women are running for office in areas most affected by the violence last January, hoping to deter another explosion by practicing politics in a way that actually delivers services like water, roads, and schools to people; in Colombia, women who have been the victims of atrocities at the hands of either the military, the paramilitaries, or guerilla forces have built a small city to safeguard themselves with the stipulation that if you live there you have to join in the legal battle to get all of the guilty parties to stop the killing and the land grabs. 
 Were there any films or filmmakers that were particularly inspirational to you along the way?

 Any favorites? I can never really say who my favorite filmmakers are. There are too many. Also, I think I learn as much from filmmakers whose work I don't like as from filmmakers whose work I admire. How has the making of this film changed you
? The first time I went to Liberia, about fifteen of the women gathered one day to tell me what they had lived through. We sat outside in a circle as one after another of them recounted how they came together to fight for peace. As the sun was setting, I asked how it had been possible to sustain themselves in the face of such brutality. One woman began to sing a spiritual about the Walls of Jericho tumbling down. One by one the others joined in. At that moment, I was profoundly moved and felt a deep sense of responsibility to do everything in my creative power to bring this story to the world. Source: www.huffingtonpost.com